YESI Director's evidence to the EFRA Select Committee feeds into report released on Food Security
YESI Director Professor Sue Hartley recently gave evidence to the EFRA Select Committee on Food Security in the UK, which assisted in the compilation for the first of two reports on Food Security by the Committee.
The UK currently enjoys a high level of food security, but this situation will not last, warns the Select Committee, unless the Government plans now for future changes in our weather patterns and the changing global demand for food.
This report focusses on food production, supply and the systems necessary to ensurefood security in the UK in the future. It highlights some examples of good practice and how Government and food producers could plan for projected changes better to make our food production, and supply systems more secure.
The Select Committee makes a number of recommendations to the Government in its report, including monitoring the level of self-sufficiency in foods which can be produced in the UK (currently at 68%), the shortening of supermarket supply chains, a marketable tool which would enable farmerse to predict and plan for the likely impact of adverse weather and monitoring and increasing funding available for agricultural technologies.
Read the full report here.
Transcripts of the oral evidence given can be viewed here, and include input by Sue Hartley on such topics as soil security, crop resilience, agricultural technologies, food integrity and facilitating interactions between research-intensive universities and practitioners training the next generation of farmers.